On 16th June a new law came into force criminalising forced marriage. The Home Office definition of forced marriage is ‘one in which one or both spouses do not consent to the marriage but are coerced into it through physical, psychological, financial, sexual and emotional pressure’. The maximum penalty for a perpetrator is 7 years.
The new criminal sanctions build on a law introduced in 2008 to outlaw forced marriage through Forced Marriage Protection Orders (FMPO’s). These are a type of order made in the Family Court against an individual or individuals who are attempting to force someone into a marriage against their will. As with the criminal law, it was envisaged that the perpetrators are likely to be family members.
On an application for an FMPO, the Family Court can make any of the following orders against a specific named individual or individuals:
- That they must not take the applicant abroad to be forced into a marriage
- That they do not take certain actions, e.g. use or threaten violence, intimidate, harass or pester the applicant
- That they hand over the applicant’s passport and travel documents to the Court
Breach of an FMPO is a criminal offence called contempt of court. If the applicant alleges that the order has been breached, they must apply back to the Family Court to have the other party committed to prison. The maximum sentence is 2 years.
The difference between the new criminal law and an FMPO is that it is up to the victim to approach a solicitor and make an application to court. As the application is likely to be made against a family member, this takes a great deal of courage. Legal aid is available for Forced Marriage Protection Orders, though this is subject to means testing.
The new criminal law should mean that applications for FMPO’s in the family court go down. The victim in a criminal case is a witness therefore, to an extent the case, is out of their hands. The criminal penalties available are harsher which should be a more effective deterrent. However, as with all criminal case, the case has to be proven ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ rather than ‘on the balance of probabilities’, which is the test in the Family Court.
Considering that FMPO applications to the family court are rare, it is unclear whether the criminal law will have much effect on the statistics. The main reason for this appears to be that victims of forced marriage do not want to get family members into trouble.
The effect of the new law and the surrounding publicity may go some way towards effecting a culture change that forcing someone into marriage is not acceptable.
For more information on the statistics and Government’s Forced Marriage Unit see httpss://www.gov.uk/forced-marriage.
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